astronomy

Tag archives for astronomy

Day two of the New Frontiers wrap-up conference. This is a slow liveblog with more cosmology and life in the universe. Yesterday’s summary is here A couple of years ago, the Templeton Foundation funded the New Frontiers program to pose “Big Questions” in some areas of science. This is a slow liveblog – part II…

A couple of years ago, the Templeton Foundation funded the New Frontiers program to pose “Big Questions” in some areas of science. This is a slow liveblog – part II will be tomorrow with more cosmology and life in the universe Seed funding was provided to 20 investigators and small groups to start exploratory research,…

“There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it’s all dark.” While the Moon has a nearside and a farside, it does not, actually, have a dark side or a light side, now. At least not a fixed dark side, just a slowly moving night side, and day side. But it…

You are at university. Do you like stars, and stuff? We revisit old ruminations on career paths ’cause it is topical… Another rehashed blast from the past. Should you do astronomy as an undergrad? (the following is in part shamelessly cribbed from a colleague’s previous freshman seminar for our majors): Do you like stars and…

So, now you’re at university, and you’re thinking about heading for grad school … A seasonal revisit of some old rumblings* *NB: this discussion should not be construed to be anything but hypothetical ramblings, they do not reflect in any way the official position of any academic institution, department or graduate program, especially not the…

Earth Impact Calculator Ok, that was close, and I don’t mean the zip by of li’l old 2012 DA14 this evening. The Chelyabinsk meteor looks to have been on the high end of the range of quick and dirty estimates, with impact energy of maybe 300 kTon equivalent. This is a size impact we’d expect…

Dr Brad Barlow was nominated by his Astro 001 students for a great honour – whichever class collected the most money for this year’s THON would get to designate a lecture style of their choice, and Brad won… so he got to lecture as a character from a “classic christmas movie”[sic] As you can see,…

Or, how may hours should graduate students work? Well, depends… However Many You Like As Many As They Can As Many As Are Needed All Of Them The answer may sometimes lie in the above range, sometimes may be somewhat less, and occasionally even more. We’ve all been there, and all suffer from survivor bias,…

In which we win an award from the New Frontiers in Astronomy Program. The New Frontiers in Astronomy and Cosmology program announced its research grant award winners yesterday. The last, but not least of the Big Questions solicited in the Call for Proposals, was: Are we alone in the universe? Or, are there other life…

The New Frontiers in Astronomy and Cosmology program included 21 awards for essays by high school and university students on the Big Questions. The winners are: Student Essay Competition College Essay Winners First Prize Yong Wei Chong Gabrielle, Wellesley College, “A Letter to My Dearest Newborn Baby Brother” Second Prizes Karl Haislmaier, George Mason University,…